March 22, 2009
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
Causes and Cures
Year B
Fourth Sunday of Lent
What brings more fear to people than the snake. Most of us absolutely hate snakes. Perhaps that is why we make up so many stories about them. As the bad guy. The story goes that is was the snake which bought evil to mankind in the garden of evil, and God instilled a hatred of humans and snakes every since. I don’t know if that satisfies my fear of snakes, but I guess it is a start.
Moses takes up on the story of the fear of snakes when the Isrealites are wandering in the desert, and they start to complain that they want to go back to Egypt. Moses prays and a brood of snakes come into camp and kills them. In order to stop the snake attack, Moses is told to make a statue of a snake and lift it up – if people look up at the snake on a stick, then they would be saved from the snakes at their feet.
That may seem a little absurd, except when you realize that the modern symbol for a physician as one who heals is a snake wrapped around a stick.
We may hate snakes, and even think of it as an evil creature – but it is also the universal symbol of healing. Everywhere in the world – people understand the symbol of a snake on a stick as a symbol for a doctor.
Parasites were a big problem in the ancient world, and in many poorer parts of the world they are still a problem. There is one called the fiery serpent- which will live inside of the body and cause a lot of damage. The only way to get it out – is to cut a slit in the skin, and as it crawls out- to carefully wrap it around a stick. If you are not careful, it could break off a stay inside. The need to get rid of this parasite was so common in ancient times that the universal symbol for someone who could heal you from sickness . So even today, doctors have the symbol behind their name.
In the modern world – our explanations for sickness have changed, the illnesses which affect us are still the same. Many of us don’t worry too much about parasites, even though we don’t realize that they are still the cause of many of our illnesses. But we still do look for people who can heal us and make us better. We still seek the person with the reputation for making things better. We still seek those with the symbol of the snake on a stick.
Perhaps that is why the book of John picks up on the ancient theme of the snake on a stick, but instead of talking about snakes – John says that Jesus himself must be lifted up high so that the people can see.
John is saying that we will look for the sign of Jesus being lifted up on a cross to be healed. In this instance, we are not seeking healing from a physical condition, but a spiritual condition – the condition of sin in our lives.
In our world we are no longer worry too much about being poisoned by snakes, but we can worry about the poison of sin in our hearts. There is the poison of jealousy, greed, and worry in our life. We have to remember that sin is anything in our lives that poisons our thinking and our way of life from what God intended. I think my biggest sin in life write now is learning to be comfortable with stress in my life. When I am stressed out I eat different foods than I would otherwise, my sleeping habits are different, my whole daily routine is different. I forget to take time out for myself and more importantly for my relationship with God. Just yesterday I realized that I am starting to get comfortable with those stressed reactions, so much so, that I am forgetting what it means to live healthy. I can’t even tell the difference anymore.
Lent is that time for us to take time to realize that there is a difference in our lives when we are living with God, and when we are sinning - which means missing the mark of being who God intended us to be.
Luckily for us, lent is the time for us to look for the universal symbol of healing – of Jesus on the cross. (since I am not catholic – I don’t have any symbols of Jesus being lifted up high on the cross) But I do have many symbols of the cross – our source of healing for not only physical illnesses, but spiritual ones as well.
This year we have been focusing in the promises of God. Both Ephesians and John capture that promise very well. Ephesians 4 and 5 say But God, who is rich in mercy, out of great love , even when we were dead in our trespasses, were made alive with Christ Jesus. John contains the most well known verse in the bible – for God do loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whomever would believe in him would have eternal life and have it abundantly. God’s promise to us is that even when we are sinners, we are still loved. God has prepared a place for us in heaven, even before ever realized that there was a heaven to aspire to.
The book of Ephesians is thought to be a book of prayers and instructions for a disheartened community. People who had given their life to the Christian way – but had lost sight of why they had put their faith in Christ. They had been told that Jesus was coming soon, and that all would be better, but they begin to see that was not the case. The comfort of Ephesians is not so much in the words, but in the tone of the words. For a people who are tired of waiting, the author is reminding us that The work of God has already been done. We have already been saved, we have already been given eternal life, we have already been forgiven. So we don’t need to wait for something to happen – it has already happened. God’s healing for us is a gift freely given. It is a gift that has already been given to us, - while we are still stuck in our bad habits.
Eckhardt Tolle – who is not a Christian writer, but is a spiritual writer- has a book called the power of now. He says that we have become comfortable with waiting for things to happen. Waiting for change. Change is something that is going to happen in the future. Our happiness is out there somewhere, things will get better out there at some point. We will live the life we dream about when we are ready for it, it will happen eventually. We will have a better relationship with God and be able to really think about what we are called to do, when life slows down and we have time for it. We have become so busy thinking about change. That we forget that change is here with us – in our relationship with God, with ourselves with others and with the world. We really don’t have to wait for God to come to be with us – because God is already here. God has been with us before we came into being, and God is with us every step of the way.
The message of Ephesians is to get in touch with the now-ness of God. You don’t have to wait for things to change – because the change has already happen.
For instance for me in my own struggle – I don’t have to wait for life to get better to stop living a stressed out life. The healthy vegetables, the 64 ounces of water, even the gym is already present in my life – all I have to do is acknowledge them. You can take the time to think about your own situation, your own habits, your own relationship with God. You can apply the things that you are waiting for in your life. The Ephesians were waiting for Jesus to return before things would change – what are you waiting for?
Ephesians message is that what you are waiting for – it already happen a long time ago. When God made a decision to love you no matter what. And that love started to unfold in history. So stop living as if you are waiting for it to happen, and start living as if it has already been given to you. By grace – you have been saved. And raised up in him and seated us with him in heavenly places.
Jesus Christ just came to deliver the message – that the work had already been done. Jesus too preaches the importance of living in the now-ness of life. We don’t have a moment to lose in waiting – that we have to spread God’s message of love to a world which needs it now.
Speaking of snakes, there is the story of old man John and his two sons, Jake and Joe, who lived out on a ranch out west. They never had much use for the church – until one day when the son Jake was bitten by a rattlesnake. They called the doctor first, but the doctor said that Jake was surely going to die. So they called for the priest to come pray for Jake. The priest’s prayer was Dear Lord, thank you for sending this snake to bite Jake – because it sent him to seek you out and to ask for your grace in his life. I pray for a bigger snake to come and to bite his father John and his brother Joe – so that they too can have an opportunity to seek your salvation.
Depending on where Jake was in his faith journey, that may have not been a comforting prayer for him, seeing that he was destined to die anyway. But I am sure that it scared the heck out of John and Joe.
Snakes have been a source of fear for humans for ages. We have been afraid of their poison for years, rightfully so. I want you to think about where the source of poison is in your life?
The symbol of the snake on a stick has been the symbol of healing for ages. The sign of the cross is our sign of healing. If the symbol of Jesus be lifted up – then all who believe will have eternal life.
What are you doing on your life to lift jesus up – so that others can see that there is a universal sign of healing in the world. It is a sign not of what is to come – but of what is already been done. God’s love for us is s done deal – and there is nothing you can do about it – but go in peace and love. Amen.
Showing posts with label healing paradox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healing paradox. Show all posts
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
God of Touch, God of healing
February 15, 2009
Year B
God’s Touch, God’s Healing
2 Kings 5:1-27
Mark 1:40-45
Sixth Sunday of Epiphany
The word for today is paradox
A Paradox is a situation where one thing is said or done, but another thing is meant or intended, and even though they may be opposites – they both are things are equally true. This lesson today is about the paradox of life, and more importantly of God.
Jesus as healer
The theme of the epiphany seems to be healing. The book of Mark sets out to prove that Jesus was a healer; he made life better for many people. That healing ministry is still true today.
Comes into the world to being healing
Our paradoxical God sent Jesus into the world to bring healing to his people. He saw that there was a lot of pain and suffering in the world. The world which was created as a place for us to be happy and whole, and he sent someone to help us out – to realize how to rise above our sin and to accept healing.
And yet that is the hardest thing for us to accept. We all say that we want to heal – and yet in reality we do everything that we can to stay away from it. We are all sinners, we all do things that are not quite right, not quite in our best interest, and yet we continue to do them anyway. We want to heal, but it takes so much work on our part – it is just easier to live life the way it is.
Once again, the Hebrew bible gives us a timeless story of human nature in an unlikely place. As we hear the story of Naaman.
He was someone whom God found favor on, and wanted to give him the gift of healing.
Syria – is the country to the north of Israel. When visiting Israel and passing by Syria, our guide told us not to even look that way – don’t appear curious of what it going on
The two countries were enemies, as they were long ago. The relationship was so strained, that they do not even associate with one another.
Naaman was the Commander of Syrian army; he was suffering and told the unthinkable – to go to Israel in search of a cure. His slave girl tells him of a prophet who can help him, and the only one willing to even take on skin diseases.
Causes a scandal when he comes to town, but even more so offended when given a cure – he is told to go and bath in the Jordan river seven times.
Why would he insult him by saying such a thing – when there is a river at home that is just as good, if not better.
That is our response to healing – we want to do things our way, and be in control, rather that listen to the advice of someone else. We want magic instead of medicine. We would rather voice our opinion about what is right then be quiet and do as we are told.
The human condition. Bible says that Naaman has leprosy – a skin condition. Today, Leprosy is called Hanson’s disease. It is a very painful incurable skin condition, where the body become disfigured, and you swell. And eventually you die from the disease. The bible uses that word in the old and new testament, but there is no real proof that that illness existed in that part of the world at that time. Leprosy is mostly found in India. And yet Leviticus spends a lot of time talking about a skin disease called leprosy. It could affect your body, your house, your clothes, even your standing in the community. But Some believe that it was not leprosy that Naaman had, or even a physical condition.
It was disease – a spiritual condition – where things were just not falling into place
Sin is the disease of the spirit. Missing the mark, not complete or whole, needing something to make you feel better.
Sin is the cause of us not wanting to heal – eating the wrong foods, not taking care of ourselves, not being in right relationship, not taking care of our lives, doing things that we know don’t help us – but we don’t want to change to get better.
God always wants us to get better. To heal. To feel whole. That’s what a relationship with God brings, and God is constantly trying to bring us into relationship.
That is the story of the bible – the story of God reaching out to us in unlikely ways – to get us to realize that we are whole. – that we are connected to the divine.
The olden culture was afraid of skin disease because they did not understand it. Were afraid that it made all who came in contact with it impure or polluted.
They Believed that the only way to come in contact with a pure and holy God was to be holy. Disease was a symbol of death.
If you Touched something dead, you were polluted and had to be cleansed. Pure and impure determined your access to God.
The temple was designed so that those who were not cleansed, could not go in to be close to God. We have been designing our societies like that for ages- those who were in and those who were out. Those who were polluted and those who were not. Those we could talk to and those we could not.
That is just the way things were but not the way things should be. Our paradoxical God is available to all people no matter who they are, or what condition they are in. God even loves the Syrians enough to bring them healing. God loves us enough to bring us out of what ever our disease it – to bring us to healing.
Jesus comes in contact with another leper – who is asking to get better. Once again, not the leprosy of modern days – but a social condition, cut off from society, more importantly cut off from yourself. More than like once again the results of our sinfulness. Jesus first reaction is anger –or deep emotion
But eventually he does heal him and sends him back into the world a whole person. Tell no one – he paradox is that he tells everyone. So excited at the gift he has been given.
For us Jesus is a paradox, an unlikely place for healing to occur.
The good news is that Jesus is in the unlikely places of life. Naaman would have never thought in a million years that his healing would have been in Israel. The world never believes that their healing would be in he body of Jesus.
God is always at work in unlikely places and unexpected people. But the only ones who really truly recognize the work of God are those who have been healed by him on some way.
A young monk came to a monastery to study with the grand master – to learn from someone who indeed had that connection to God. On the first day the master told the young monk that his first lesson was to go out into the garden and to stand there with his arms wide open for an hour. The monk stood there vulnerable for an hour- soon it started to rain and not understanding what was going on, he stood there in the rain. After the hour was over with – he went angry to the master – and said I see no point in that exercise – all that it did was make him feel like a fool. The master replied – that was the point – it is an excellent starting point in your relationship with God.
That is what keeps most of us away from a deeper connection with God, from wholeness, from healing. We are not willing to do anything that makes us feel stupid, or like a fool.
The word for today is paradox – The things that we don’t want to feel, are usually the feelings that we most need to deal with in order to heal. The people who we avoid, are the people we need to talk to in order to truly be a whole human being.
The real God – the true God of Israel has never been a god that made any real sense. God is not someone who we can explain or understand, or control, or predict, or even tell what to do.
The God that we worship is a magnificent, mysterious, mischievous God. Our God loves Syrians and Israelites, Our God loves the Steelers and the Cardinals, the Catholics and the Methodist, those who are strong enough to admit their sins, and those who are not even aware that their actions are sinful. God loves us all.
The trick is for us to learn to love us all. Ann Ulanov, a theologian outs it this way.
This task confronts all of us, to deal with what touches us and not avoid it, to collect our missing parts, the neglected and overlooked and banished parts of our inner and outer populations. We are never touched in the abstract, only in the flesh. The marks of our worries, our overweight, our sleepless nights, our neighborhood crime, our neglected land, our polluted air are all a result of our disconnection with God. Our unwillingness to accept our sinfulness. God waits in those parts, waits for us to visit the part left in the prison of repression, waits for us to offer some life-giving water to outcast. All must be gathered in to be one with God. When we are one with our fears, our anger, our frustration and those who cause those emotions, then we are one with God.
What are the things in your life that you need to accept instead of pushing away? Who are the people in your life that you need to tolerate? What are the issues in the back of your mind that you put aside. Become aware of those things, and you will probably also become aware of the sins in your life that you use to deal with those things.
Surrendering those things to God is the first step to being cleansed and being healed and most importantly being whole.
Let us pray…
Year B
God’s Touch, God’s Healing
2 Kings 5:1-27
Mark 1:40-45
Sixth Sunday of Epiphany
The word for today is paradox
A Paradox is a situation where one thing is said or done, but another thing is meant or intended, and even though they may be opposites – they both are things are equally true. This lesson today is about the paradox of life, and more importantly of God.
Jesus as healer
The theme of the epiphany seems to be healing. The book of Mark sets out to prove that Jesus was a healer; he made life better for many people. That healing ministry is still true today.
Comes into the world to being healing
Our paradoxical God sent Jesus into the world to bring healing to his people. He saw that there was a lot of pain and suffering in the world. The world which was created as a place for us to be happy and whole, and he sent someone to help us out – to realize how to rise above our sin and to accept healing.
And yet that is the hardest thing for us to accept. We all say that we want to heal – and yet in reality we do everything that we can to stay away from it. We are all sinners, we all do things that are not quite right, not quite in our best interest, and yet we continue to do them anyway. We want to heal, but it takes so much work on our part – it is just easier to live life the way it is.
Once again, the Hebrew bible gives us a timeless story of human nature in an unlikely place. As we hear the story of Naaman.
He was someone whom God found favor on, and wanted to give him the gift of healing.
Syria – is the country to the north of Israel. When visiting Israel and passing by Syria, our guide told us not to even look that way – don’t appear curious of what it going on
The two countries were enemies, as they were long ago. The relationship was so strained, that they do not even associate with one another.
Naaman was the Commander of Syrian army; he was suffering and told the unthinkable – to go to Israel in search of a cure. His slave girl tells him of a prophet who can help him, and the only one willing to even take on skin diseases.
Causes a scandal when he comes to town, but even more so offended when given a cure – he is told to go and bath in the Jordan river seven times.
Why would he insult him by saying such a thing – when there is a river at home that is just as good, if not better.
That is our response to healing – we want to do things our way, and be in control, rather that listen to the advice of someone else. We want magic instead of medicine. We would rather voice our opinion about what is right then be quiet and do as we are told.
The human condition. Bible says that Naaman has leprosy – a skin condition. Today, Leprosy is called Hanson’s disease. It is a very painful incurable skin condition, where the body become disfigured, and you swell. And eventually you die from the disease. The bible uses that word in the old and new testament, but there is no real proof that that illness existed in that part of the world at that time. Leprosy is mostly found in India. And yet Leviticus spends a lot of time talking about a skin disease called leprosy. It could affect your body, your house, your clothes, even your standing in the community. But Some believe that it was not leprosy that Naaman had, or even a physical condition.
It was disease – a spiritual condition – where things were just not falling into place
Sin is the disease of the spirit. Missing the mark, not complete or whole, needing something to make you feel better.
Sin is the cause of us not wanting to heal – eating the wrong foods, not taking care of ourselves, not being in right relationship, not taking care of our lives, doing things that we know don’t help us – but we don’t want to change to get better.
God always wants us to get better. To heal. To feel whole. That’s what a relationship with God brings, and God is constantly trying to bring us into relationship.
That is the story of the bible – the story of God reaching out to us in unlikely ways – to get us to realize that we are whole. – that we are connected to the divine.
The olden culture was afraid of skin disease because they did not understand it. Were afraid that it made all who came in contact with it impure or polluted.
They Believed that the only way to come in contact with a pure and holy God was to be holy. Disease was a symbol of death.
If you Touched something dead, you were polluted and had to be cleansed. Pure and impure determined your access to God.
The temple was designed so that those who were not cleansed, could not go in to be close to God. We have been designing our societies like that for ages- those who were in and those who were out. Those who were polluted and those who were not. Those we could talk to and those we could not.
That is just the way things were but not the way things should be. Our paradoxical God is available to all people no matter who they are, or what condition they are in. God even loves the Syrians enough to bring them healing. God loves us enough to bring us out of what ever our disease it – to bring us to healing.
Jesus comes in contact with another leper – who is asking to get better. Once again, not the leprosy of modern days – but a social condition, cut off from society, more importantly cut off from yourself. More than like once again the results of our sinfulness. Jesus first reaction is anger –or deep emotion
But eventually he does heal him and sends him back into the world a whole person. Tell no one – he paradox is that he tells everyone. So excited at the gift he has been given.
For us Jesus is a paradox, an unlikely place for healing to occur.
The good news is that Jesus is in the unlikely places of life. Naaman would have never thought in a million years that his healing would have been in Israel. The world never believes that their healing would be in he body of Jesus.
God is always at work in unlikely places and unexpected people. But the only ones who really truly recognize the work of God are those who have been healed by him on some way.
A young monk came to a monastery to study with the grand master – to learn from someone who indeed had that connection to God. On the first day the master told the young monk that his first lesson was to go out into the garden and to stand there with his arms wide open for an hour. The monk stood there vulnerable for an hour- soon it started to rain and not understanding what was going on, he stood there in the rain. After the hour was over with – he went angry to the master – and said I see no point in that exercise – all that it did was make him feel like a fool. The master replied – that was the point – it is an excellent starting point in your relationship with God.
That is what keeps most of us away from a deeper connection with God, from wholeness, from healing. We are not willing to do anything that makes us feel stupid, or like a fool.
The word for today is paradox – The things that we don’t want to feel, are usually the feelings that we most need to deal with in order to heal. The people who we avoid, are the people we need to talk to in order to truly be a whole human being.
The real God – the true God of Israel has never been a god that made any real sense. God is not someone who we can explain or understand, or control, or predict, or even tell what to do.
The God that we worship is a magnificent, mysterious, mischievous God. Our God loves Syrians and Israelites, Our God loves the Steelers and the Cardinals, the Catholics and the Methodist, those who are strong enough to admit their sins, and those who are not even aware that their actions are sinful. God loves us all.
The trick is for us to learn to love us all. Ann Ulanov, a theologian outs it this way.
This task confronts all of us, to deal with what touches us and not avoid it, to collect our missing parts, the neglected and overlooked and banished parts of our inner and outer populations. We are never touched in the abstract, only in the flesh. The marks of our worries, our overweight, our sleepless nights, our neighborhood crime, our neglected land, our polluted air are all a result of our disconnection with God. Our unwillingness to accept our sinfulness. God waits in those parts, waits for us to visit the part left in the prison of repression, waits for us to offer some life-giving water to outcast. All must be gathered in to be one with God. When we are one with our fears, our anger, our frustration and those who cause those emotions, then we are one with God.
What are the things in your life that you need to accept instead of pushing away? Who are the people in your life that you need to tolerate? What are the issues in the back of your mind that you put aside. Become aware of those things, and you will probably also become aware of the sins in your life that you use to deal with those things.
Surrendering those things to God is the first step to being cleansed and being healed and most importantly being whole.
Let us pray…
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